Piranha

She moved on to the next photo. This one showed a jumble of crystals embedded in rock, the facets reflecting the camera’s burst of flash powder. The image was marred by the crack through the middle.

“That looks like a geode,” Eric said.

“Yeah,” Murph agreed, “but without anything else in the photo, we can’t get a handle on its size. The crystals don’t look clear, though, like the quartz crystals in a typical geode. They look darker than that. It could be amethyst.”

“Or they could be green. Lutzen’s thesis mentioned that his detection method would rely on crystals of selenium, copper, and uranium, and copper impurities in crystals give them a green hue. The uranium would also explain why the plates are radioactive.”

“Maybe he was collecting gems,” Linc said. “Whatever this is could still be buried in the Roraima. Not that I want to go back to look for it.”

Linda snapped to the third plate. Again the image was split by a crack, which bisected the interior of a cavern teeming with stalactites and stalagmites. A tu

Juan felt a ray of hope. “Now we’re getting somewhere. This narrows down our search area considerably.”

“Why?” Hali asked.

“Because caves like that form only in certain limestone terrains, in what’s known as karst topography. It rules out Martinique and any other volcanic island.”

Linda nodded. “Juan’s right. The problem is that it still leaves a lot of land to cover. Even if we’re limiting ourselves to the Caribbean, it could be anywhere from Puerto Rico to Mexico and up through Florida.”

“I think it’s a good chance we’re looking at Haiti,” Juan said. “Remember, that’s where tram enthusiast Hector Bazin hails from.”

“The last photo might help confirm that,” Linda said.

The final picture showed a flourishing jungle landscape of ridges, hills, and valleys. The same man from the first photo stood in the foreground, this time beaming with a smile, his foot jauntily propped on a rock. He pointed into the shallow gorge behind him where a cave opening yawned. A river wound through the bottom of the gorge.

“I don’t mean to be a party pooper,” Juan said, “but how does this photo help us? It shows us the cave entrance, but I don’t see anything identifying where this is.”

“The ridge in the background,” Murph said. “See the distinctive outline? Given Lutzen’s height—if that is him—based on him standing against the Roraima, whose size we know, I estimated how far away the ridge is. The river gives us another reference point. The measurements aren’t exact, but they’re close enough to run a comparison using our worldwide topographical map—you know, the National Reco

“I’m sorry I doubted you,” Juan said. “How long will it take?”

“It’s been ru

“All right. Once we know where to look, we’ll have to come up with a game plan. Remember, we only have a day left before Kensit puts into play whatever is going to change the world. However, our approach will be tricky because of the neutrino telescope that Eric thinks Lawrence Kensit has developed.”

“Who came up with that name?” Murph asked.

“I did,” Eric replied. “Although the existence of neutrinos was first proposed by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930, the particle Lutzen describes in his thesis much earlier is clearly a neutrino. He just didn’t have a name for it.”

“Yeah, yeah, great name,” Linc said. “How does it work?”

“As far as I can tell, Lutzen theorized that intercepted neutrinos could be reconstructed to create the state of the place they passed through.”

“Like an X-ray?”

“Yes, but far more advanced. It could show you literally any spot on earth. Not only that but you could also hear what was going on in that space because it would also intercept the air particles that are conveying the sound.”

Murph said, “Think of what the NSA could do with technology like that. Say bye-bye to any secrets.”

Linc scoffed. “You think Kensit actually made this thing? A telescope that can see through walls? And around the world? Has he also cracked the code to warp drive?”

“I know it sounds bizarre,” Juan said, “but imagine explaining the idea of X-rays before they were discovered. We have to go under the assumption that this neutrino telescope exists. Kensit and Bazin have anticipated our every move. They beat us to Jamaica, New York, and Berlin, and they knew exactly where we’d be each time. Kensit could have been watching us type in log-ins and passwords, giving him full access to our communications and computer networks.”

“That’s why you had me shut down any external access to our main computer,” Murph said, nodding.

“Right,” Juan said. “In the case of Berlin, Bazin knew where we’d be even though I never breathed a word of it over any line of communication. It’s very possible that he’s watching and listening to this meeting right now.”

Everyone paused to soak in the likelihood that their privacy was completely gone.

Finally Hali spoke. “Then how can we possibly defeat this guy? He’ll know whatever plan we come up with.”

“He’s obviously not infallible,” Juan said. “You proved that by foiling his sub plan in Martinique. Eric has a theory why.”

Eric cleared his throat. “I think he only can see one place at a time. It lets him spy on our plans, but if there are multiple situations happening simultaneously, he has to choose what to observe.”

“We have another advantage.” Juan looked each of his officers in the eye. “Our shared history. If we talk in code, relating key information about our upcoming plans using past experiences that only we know between us, he’ll never be able to decipher it even if he’s listening in. That coupled with Max’s idea to wait until the last moment to reveal our tactics gives us a fighting chance against Kensit.”

Murph’s tablet computer dinged. “The results are back. We got a couple of hits at more than fifty percent probability but only one that is better than a ninety-five percent match.” Murph tapped on the screen, then groaned when he saw the results.

“What’s the matter?” Max asked. “Is it a false lead?”

“No, it’s a match. But you’re not go

A yellow dot was superimposed on a satellite image of the area, with the ridge outline in red. Instead of the dot appearing in a green valley, it was planted inside the blue water of a lake.

“Your comparison model must be wrong,” Eddie said. “How could the cave be at the bottom of a lake?”

“Because that is Lake Péligre on the Artibonite River in central Haiti,” Murph said with a dejected sigh as he read from his screen. “It was formed by the construction of the Péligre Hydroelectric Dam in 1956, more than fifty years after Gunther Lutzen visited it. The cave entrance is now under forty feet of water.”

By midday the Oregon had reached the Dominican Republic’s largest northern port, Puerto Plata. Lake Péligre was situated almost directly in the center of Haiti and would require travel over twisting and rutted roads; it would take Linda and her team seven hours to make the two-hundred-and-seventy-five-mile journey. The easier part was getting their transportation into the country.